AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She may have encouraged the sneakiness in years past, though admittedly that has been many a year.”
I turned my gaze to the fire and watched the flames dance. A weariness settled on me that had arisen during our stay on Kalea. “It would be nice to get away. . .”
“Then it’s decided,” Ben replied as he took up the decanter that sat on the table between our chairs and poured us each a drink. He handed me one glass and held aloft the other. “To an eventful vacation.”
I held my cup up and nodded. “To an uneventful vacation.”
We should have sacrificed a goat, too, much good that toast did for us, as we were soon to find out.
CHAPTERTWO
I tooka sip from my cup and lowered it to peer at Ben. The only problem was, Ben wasn’t there, anymore. Actually, the whole room had disappeared except for my chair and the end table.
Smooth flagstones lay underneath me and the dark paneled wood walls were now huge cut boulders stacked perfectly one on top of the other. The walls curved upward into a gentle dome above my head and created a fifty-foot-wide tunnel. Large torch holders hung from the walls, though their occupants had long ago rotted to nothing, and the floor was hewn from smoothed marble.
Niches covered the walls at neat intervals and were occupied by skeletons in elegant raiment. Though time and rot had taken their toll, I could still see the gold inlaid hems and frilled cuffs. Beautiful jewelry adorned necklaces that hung over their cleave bones, and many sported rings attached to their fingers only through wire tied to their cuffs.
I knew this place.
I set the glass down on the end table and stood. My legs shook a little, but I gathered my courage and walked toward the familiar wide doorway at the end of the tunnel. The entrance led us into a large room, and on either side hung tapestries torn and faded by time, but still bearing the emblems of great eagles, bears, and even dragons.
A throne stood at the end of the room and a soft red glow came from the seat. A tall skeleton sat upon the imperial seat, clothed in the tattered remains of purple garb with a simple cloak thrown over his shoulders. He held a scepter in one hand and there was a ring upon a finger on his left.
The Lord of the Catacombs.
The lump in my throat returned as I edged my way toward the royal seat. He sat in a slightly reclining position as I’d seen him before but the dead royalty now had a companion at his side.
The familiar, if not slightly rotting, face of Thomas Fox stood on one side of the throne. His smile soothed my frayed nerves. “It’s good to see you again, Miss Lucas.”
The lord’s empty sockets filled with a bright red light and the skeleton stirred. Those two glowing orbs fell on me as he rose from his slumber. The jaws moved and his deep, resonating voice floated out of his fleshless face. “Do not be alarmed. I have summoned you here for a purpose.”
“Howdidyou summon me here?” I wondered as I swept my eyes over the dusty room. “The last thing I remember was sitting in Ben’s study.”
“You are here, and yet you are not.”
My face drooped as I returned my attention to the skeleton. “Come again?”
“This is a sort of dream,” Fox spoke up, but he was silenced by a look of warning from his lord.
“So why did you, um, summon me here?” I wondered.
The lord’s shining eyes dropped to the canister still attached to my arm. “You have yet to master the magic contained in the Prima Staff.”
I folded my arms over my chest and shrugged. “Sorry. I was a little busy trying not to become a sacrifice to a snake god.”
A sharp look in his eyes quelled my sassiness. He sat up straighter and his shape cast a long shadow across the floor that covered me in darkness. “The Prima Staff chose you above all others. You must master its powers if you are to become who you are meant to be.”
I blinked at him. “Who I’m meant to be?”
“Fate takes you into the Werewald. You will seek the Ealdan who resides under the canopy of those ancient woods and learn how to control your magic and that of the staff.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Are you sure this isn’t a dream? I mean, seeking out some special person in the Werewald who might help me learn how to control my powers? It sounds a little too much like a strange dream.”
The lord held up his left hand and the ring on his finger glistened in the flickering light.“As proof of my command, I give you this.”
The skeleton’s eyes flickered to his compatriot, and Fox stepped up to him and removed the ring. My old friend hurried down from the platform over to me where he stood in front of me. His eyes twinkled as he lifted my left hand where my betrothal ring shone.
“A thousand blessings upon you and yours, Miss Lucas,” he whispered as he took up my right hand and slipped the ring onto my finger closest to the pinky. For a moment I thought it was too big, but the ring shrank before my very eyes and fit perfectly. Fox clasped my hand between both of his and offered me an amused smile. “We shall not say farewell again, but ‘see you soon.’”
